International Briefs

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- Ukrainian public schools will begin teaching about morals and faith under a new curriculum being developed in part by Orthodox church leaders.

The voluntary classes will be introduced throughout this predominantly Orthodox nation of 48 million starting Sept. 1, said Patriarch Filaret, who heads the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kiev Patriarchate.

President Viktor Yushchenko, who is Orthodox, gave his backing to the project in a private meeting with religious leaders June 15, but his office said the curriculum must "satisfy all Ukrainians."

"Yushchenko as a father said he wants children to find a path to God not just intuitively but with the help of parents and school," said presidential spokesman Dmytro Vasilyev.

Filaret said leaders from all Christian churches in the former Soviet republic will work together to help develop a curriculum, which will include lessons about morality as well as information such as creationism, the belief that God created the universe as explained in the Bible. Filaret said Darwin's theory of evolution should still be taught, but that it was important for children to hear another view.

Vasilyev said much work must still be done to develop the curriculum, and noted that the issue was sensitive since the country is religiously diverse. While Ukraine is predominantly Orthodox, it does have followers of other faiths, including Islam and Judaism.

Parents object

LANDOVER, Md. -- Three Montgomery County high schools say they will no longer use churches for graduation ceremonies after parents complained the locations were inappropriate because of the display of Christian symbols.

Montgomery Blair, Richard Montgomery and Sherwood high schools have held their graduations at the 10,000-seat Jericho City of Praise church in Landover because it offered plenty of parking and space for a large audience.

But some parents objected and contacted Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which notified the school system.

"I'm certainly not against convenience, and I'm certainly not against parents having the opportunity to bring a number of family members to the graduation ceremony," said John Lippincott, father of a Richard Montgomery High student. "But I don't see that as a compelling reason to overlook the fact that there is something fundamentally inappropriate about holding a public school graduation under a sign that clearly reads 'Jesus Is the Lord!'"

Montgomery Blair Principal Phillip F. Gainous acknowledges the presence of religious symbols, but said it was not overwhelming. Montgomery Blair began using the church in 2002 because a county horse show arena couldn't accommodate the graduation ceremony.

French Muslims vote

PARIS -- Muslim officials around France have elected new leaders for a French Muslim council that was created two years ago to bring together the faith's diverse factions and give Islam a unified voice.

The election did little to change the hierarchy of the French Council of the Muslim Faith, but a fundamentalist Muslim party lost seats in the organization.

The CFCM, the council's French acronym, was created in 2003 as part of France's effort to address Muslim concerns. Until the body was established, Islam, which has no central authority or clergy, had no unified structure to communicate concerns or grievances to the French government. More than 5 million Muslims live in France, and Islam is second only to Roman Catholicism in the number of followers in the country.

A total of 5,230 imams, clerics and other Muslim officials from France's 1,200 mosques were eligible to vote last Sunday to select the council's national and regional leaders. Turnout was estimated at 85 percent, the Interior Ministry said.

A conservative mosque network close to Morocco, the National Federation of Muslims of France, kept its top position, winning 19 of 43 seats, the council said.

The Union of Islamic Organizations of France, inspired by Egypt's banned Muslim Brotherhood, had been alone as the second-strongest group in the council. But it won 10 seats this time around, down from 13.

Meanwhile, the moderate, Algerian-backed Mosque of Paris also won 10 seats, up from six.

Despite efforts to bring the different Muslim groups together, internal power struggles continue in the community. France's Muslims come from numerous groups, associations and federations backed variously by Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia -- former French colonies -- and Pakistan.

Distorted view?

BERLIN -- The head of the German Bishops' Conference says his nation's Roman Catholics have a "somewhat distorted" view of Pope Benedict XVI because of his years as the Vatican's guardian of church doctrine.

The former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who was born in Bavaria, spent more than two decades as head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith before he was elected pope in April.

Many Roman Catholics in his native country blamed him for past decrees prohibiting Catholics from sharing Communion with Lutherans, and barring priests from participating in a government-funded counseling program for pregnant teens that the Vatican said could lead the teens to choose abortion.

"Perhaps we have had an incorrect picture of Cardinal Ratzinger in Germany over time," said Cardinal Karl Lehmann, leader of the conference. "Everything that was a little bit difficult with Rome over the past two decades was laid time and again at his door because he was the highest-ranking German in Rome, because he had particular responsibility."

Benedict's first foreign trip, planned for August, will take him to his homeland to attend World Youth Day in Cologne. While the program for his trip is not yet finalized, Lehmann said he did not expect the pope to visit his Bavarian home region.

Lehmann, who is considered a liberal and was a defender of the church's role in state abortion counseling, said the pope likely would be "sensitive to how he speaks" on social issues and relations with other Christians.

But "he is not a tactician -- he will say what he believes he has to say," Lehmann added. "He is a man who always seeks the truth."

Spiritual training

MONTERREY, Mexico -- The police force in the violent border city of Ciudad Juarez will receive spiritual training in an effort to discourage corruption and remind them that a higher power is watching their actions, officials said.

In the "spiritual sensitivity" training, the officers will meditate, pray and hear talks by an evangelical pastor, said Ramon Valdez, a spokesman with Ciudad Juarez police.

"We're doing this to avoid corruption, by reminding them that there is a God watching them," Valdez said last week.

The police force in Ciudad Juarez, a city of 1.3 million across from El Paso, Texas, is widely seen as corrupt and inept.

A group of 13 officers chosen at random have already gone through the training, which will be offered to all 1,800 officers, he said.

The officers will work on their spirituality for two hours a day during 13 weeks and then move on to "character training," where they will be reminded of good values and principles they may have lost, Valdez said.

"We are hoping they realize a police officer doesn't have to always be an oppressor and that they can become better human beings and also better police officers," he said.